Power plant and engine arrangement



INVENTOR ANKER K ANTONSEN 62% A 42% ATTORNEY A K ANTONSEN POWER PLANT AND ENGINE ARRANGEMENT Filed Dec. 30, 1938 Sept. 3, 1940.

Patented Sept. 3, 194% UNITEQ d'iATESi sinker K. Antonsen, Cedar Falls, Iowa, to Fairbanks, Morse & 00., ilhicago, Ill, a corporation Il inois Application 3%, i938, No. 245,49?

2 @lairns.

This invention relates to improvements in power plant and engine arrangement, and more particularly to an improved disposition of operating engine accessories of engines of internal combustion type, in relation to direct-connected power-consult ing units, for example, a generator closely and directly coupled to the engine by which it is driven.

In present day marine and railway installations, and in the case of many stationary installations, it is highly advantageous so to arrange an engine in relation to a power-consuming unit driven thereby, and to arrange the opera lng engine accessories, such as pumps, blowers and other power-requiring adjunctives of the engine proper, such as to require a minimum of spec about the engine, and so as most economically to util e the usually limited head room above the engine, as well as to minimize the overall plant. It is, in many cases,

length or the power of equal importance to economize on requirement of overall width of the power plant, and pa ticularly that of the engine proper, so as to provide head room and easy access for an oper- 25 ator for routine attention to each side of the engine, and for access to controls and to all operating portions of the plant. The present invention has as its major objective, the attainment of the foregoing advantages in a measure considerably improved. over that heretofore attained in direct-connected installations of comparable type. The present invention is particularly applicable to vertical multi-cylinder internal combustion engines, and the particular example selected for present disclosure, is shown as applied to a two-cycle engine of this type, employing a blower as a source of scavenging air. The reference in the specification and claims to a vertical engine, is not intended to exclude V type designs, but is utilized to embrace all of the several types wherein the height of the engine proper is one of its predominant dimensions.

Another important object of the invention may be stated as attained in an improved location and mounting of a blower on an engine of vertical type, and such that the blower is easily removable, and upon removal, permits full access to, and easy removal and replacement of the direct-connected power-consuming unit, such as a generator.

Another object akin to those heretofore stated, is attained in an improved flange mounting at the load end of an engine frame structure, such that, when the blower is removed, full vertical clearance is provided to enable lifting or lowergenerator or other power-consuming so as to permit it to swing clear of the end he frame and yet, when the parts are rativ' assembled, to utilize to fullest advanthe at the end of the power takee' d the engine.

ano er object may be stated as an improved disposition and arrangement of operataccessory, such as to keep both sides or e c inc free clear for purposes of service and. access.

regoing and merous other objects and of the inve; on will appear as the occeds, when considered in convhe accorn drawing, hereiner referred to. invention in its b oader aspects is apto an engine designed and arranged for ection to any of the usual or suitable units such an electric genhydraulic reduction gear, zlin or any other rotary mechah may be connected directly tension or 0th r power takehe, and which ll usually be y thereto. Accordingly, the unit ed as povver-consuming unit, although :ipliiied as an electric genert .3, should be taken to include any rotary the echo which may be employed as the driven apparatus in a direct-connected power plant.

Similarly, although the operating ngine accessory of the pres ntly selected embooi rent of the invention, consits of scavenging air blower, it may likewise consist of any of the operative adjuncts necessary to the operation of the engine and forming a part thereof.

In the drawing, Fig. l. is a top or plan elevation of an on e constructed in accordance with the present improvements, together with a directconnecte-d electric generator; Fig. 2 a side elevation of the power plant shown by Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional elevation, somewhat enlarged, of the shown by Figs. and as viewed along line 33 of Fig. 3..

Referring by char drawing, a generator as the parts are not materi or design. eratively connected gine includes a sub-base and case portion it, a frame structure thereabove, indicated generally at H, an exhaust belt or deck including a manifold l2 provided with a connection l3 for the exhaust piping. The engine controls are exemplified in the present disclosure by a lever iii.

The frame H is provided, by preference, with a frame extension it at its load end, this extension being provided with flanges such as ll equipped with a plurality of holding screws 58 for the detachable securement of the casing it of a scavenging air blower indicated generally at 28. The blower is of a modified Roots type, including a pair of shafts 2i and 22, with corresponding blower rotor elements 23 and 23 secured respectively to the shafts 2i and 22. An air inlet is provided to the blower 25 through an inlet port or opening and the air is discharged through a connection (not shown) into the frame of the engine, to a space about the cylinders 3i of the engine, one of which is shown by Fig. 3, whence the air is available for scavenging purposes as through the ports 32, as from an air belt, chamber or manifold 33. The details of the air passages into and internally of the frame of the engine form of themselves no part of the present invention but are described and claimed in a copending application of Hans Davids, et al., filed August 28, 1939, and bearing Serial No. 292,231; also a co-pending application of James W. Owens, filed August 28, 1939, and bearing Serial No. 292,230.

The engine disclosed is of two-cycle opposed piston type, embodying a plurality of the cylinders 3 I The cylinder proper is provided by a removable liner assembly, constituting the subject matter of a copending application of Anlier K. Antonsen et al., filed December 30, 1938, and bearing Serial No. 248,434. Each cylinder is provided with a pair of pistons 33 and 35 connected respectively, through rods 35 and 23 1 to the lower and upper crankshafts of the engine, the lower thereof being indicated at 9 and the upper crankshaft at lil. These crankshafts are operatively connected in timed relation through the provision of a sprocket il on shaft 9, a corresponding sprocket it. on shaft to and a silent chain it engaging the sprockets.

A power drive for the operating engine accessory such as the blower 20, is shown as including a gear l secured to an extension d3 of crankshaft 413. With gear 35 meshes a smaller gear fill carried by the lower blower shaft 2i; shaft 2! also carries a gear 33 which enmeshes with a companion gear 49 on shaft 22. It will thus appear that through rotation of the shaft 46 the blower drive is effected through gears ib-ill, and the two rotor shafts of the blower are revolved in the usual definite relation through gearing 48 and t), the blower being driven at somewhat higher speed than the crankshafts due to the stepup relation provided by the larger gear 45 and smaller ll.

It will clearly appear from the drawing that the zone of the detachable flange securementof the blower casing to the engine frame, as through flanges ll, is substantially in the same transverse plane as the inner end of the body of the generator 5. Thus when the blower is removed, as may be easily done, the generator may be readily disconnected through the balancer and coupling device l and vertically hoisted or lowered into place for ease of assembly and removal.

It will have appeared that the location of one of the larger operating engine accessories such as the blower, at the load end of and in overhanging relation to the generator, serves to clear both sides of the engine so as to enable ready access to practically all operating parts thereof at all times, and to provide an increased width of runway for the engine attendant at each side of the power plant.

The current design is preferably embodied in an arrangement of the overhanging blower such that the casing it does not extend appreciably above the removable hood elements 58 which overlie the upper crankshaft, and hence does not, in spite of its end mounting, add anything to the head room requirement of the engine. Otherwise expressed, this operating engine adjunct exemplified by the blower, utilizes only a space above the generator or similar unit, which would otherwise be waste space, and since it does not add to the overall width of the engine proper, being within the confines thereof, offers an especially advantageous location in installations such as those in submarines, as well as in railway usage, and in fact in any arrangement where space about the power plant is at a premium.

Aithough the blower has been shown as arranged with its rotor axes, being those of shafts 2i and 22, in the same vertical plane as the shaft of generator 5, in case the generator frame is relatively higher, the blower may be mounted otherwise than as shown.

From the foregoing it will have appeared that the arrangement illustrated and described, fully attains each of the several objectives hereinabove expressed, as well as the other advantages appearing from the more detailed description of the arrangement selected for disclosure.

Although the invention has been described by making rather specific reference to a selected embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that many changes may be made in the structure and arrangement of parts, without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention as defined by the claims hereunto appended.

I claim as my invention:

1. A direct-connected power plant including a vertical multi-cyiinder, two-cycle, opposed-piston engine having an upper crankshaft, a lower crankshaft, and a positive operative connection between said crankshafts, a generator closely coupled to the lower crankshaft, the engine including a frame structure provided with an extension on the upper portion of its generatorload end, said upper crankshaft projecting into said frame extension and having a gear element secured thereto, a Roots type blower detachably carried by said frame extension and projecting in overhanging relation to the generator, the blower including a pair of gear-connected rotor shafts, one thereof projecting inwardly of said frame extension and having a pinion secured thereto, operatively with said engine crankshaft gear element, the other of said blower rotor shafts being substantially in axial alignment with the upper crankshaft of the engine, the zone of connection cf the blower to the overhanging portion of theengine frame being axially inward of the generat 1, whereby to provide for vertical clearance for lifting the generator or parts thereof vertically with respect to its mounting, upon removal of the blower.

2. A direct-comiected power plant including a vertical multi-cylinder, two-cycle, opposed-piston engine having an upper crankshaft, a lower crankshaft, and a positive, operative connection between said crankshafts, a generator closely meshing engine frame extension and having a pinion secured thereto, operatively meshing with said crankshaft gear element, for driving the blower, said gear and pinion being relatively adapted for effecting a blower speed substantially greater than the engine speed, the zone of connection of the blower to the overhanging portion of the engine frame being axially inward of the generator, whereby to provide for vertical clearance for lifting the generator or parts thereof vertically with respect to its mounting, upon removal of the blower.

ANKER K. ANTONSEN. 

